Much like Nintendo, Sega loves placing its mascot characters into different types of games to keep things fresh, and the latest example of this tactic is Sonic Riders, a zippy arcade air board racer starring Sonic and several of his pals. The game looks fantastic and Sonic Team's managed to instill it with a sweet sense of speed, but I'm not exactly sure if it's going to be a winner since my hands on time didn't leave me lusting for more.

The reason why I'm not really feeling this game is because Sonic Team's made it more complicated than it should be. The overall goal is simplistic enough, to get your character from point A to point B, but it's how he or she gets there that's a bit awkward. You see, there's no boost button per se. Rather, you've got Air Boost, powerful energy that causes your board to move but using it comes at a price. Each character has an Air Tank, and once the energy's depleted you basically slow to a crawl. To replenish it, you can either creep your way on your board or hop off and run up to a replenishing station to refill it, so it's basically a pit stop. However, doing this goes against Sonic's very nature, which is to run like a bat out of hell without stopping for anything, so doing this feels extremely out of place, especially since all I want to do is race. I don't want to worry about paying attention to some funky meter. But you can also build it back up by supposedly picking up rings, so at least we have options.

Since there's no real turbo the majority of your speed boosts are probably going to come from Turbulence created by other racers. Basically, the critters in front of you leave behind these streams of air that'll make you go faster if you enter them. It's definitely a neat concept that works if you're able to color inside the lines (it's a bit difficult keeping one's character inside of this air), yet I'm a bit turned off at how I need to be so dependant upon the racers that are kicking my ass.

Controlling the characters is easy enough. The analog stick maneuvers them about the track, and the triggers are used to navigate turns. But I did experience a learning curve, as did some of the other journalists who played before I did. Sonic Riders just doesn't have the pick up and play nature of the SSX games. It's a bit too early to condemn since it's not slated to be released until February, but it's obvious (at least to me) that Sonic Team has some tweaking to do.

On the positive side, and for sake of not being a dirty grouch, this game has a wonderful visual appearance. Each of the 10 plus characters (Shadow has seemingly been excluded, though no official announcement has been made) as well as the environments (14 total) are crisp and exploding with color. I played the game on a Sharp Aquos and was truly impressed by the detail. The gameplay needs some fine tuning, but the graphics are about as solid as they're going to get.

There's also a decent selection of characters, though most of them are the same old faces (Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles) that we're used to. But there's also the Babylon Rogues, a rival group that promises to inject Yuji Naka's cast with some added personality, and there's different types of boards with varying abilities to select from, upgrades, and mysterious bonus content that Sega has refused to comment on. Ah yes, and there's a story hidden somewhere in here, something about Dr. Eggman challenging Sonic and friends to a Worldwide Grand Prix where the ultimate prize are the Chaos Emeralds, because as we all know, there's no one in the entire Sega universe capable of stopping this guy from stealing the damn Chaos Emeralds.

I really don't know what to think about Sonic Riders. On one hand I love the graphics and the level designs, but the racing requires a bit too much thinking to make it good. However, it's definitely way too early to pass judgment since the game comes out in late February, so I'm going to give Sega a couple more months to polish it and then I'll search for an updated build. Till then, check out our media and cross your fingers that Sonic Team gets this one right.